The Counterfeit Crisis Just Got Worse: More Ozempic Fakes Found Inside Our Supply Chain

We’ve been warning about this for a long time. If you’ve been following On The Pen, you know this isn’t the first time fake Ozempic has been spotted. But what happened this week? It changes everything.

Watch today’s podcast on the topic:

https://www.youtube.com/live/sQS617X5XIw?feature=shared

Novo Nordisk just confirmed that counterfeit Ozempic wasn’t just floating around in black market channels. This time, it slipped into the actual drug supply chain. Real pharmacies. Real distributors. Real people picking up their prescription from a trusted counter, never suspecting it might be fake.

That is not just a dangerous development. That is a direct hit to the trust people place in the entire system.

The counterfeit version was labeled as the 1 milligram dose, using an authentic lot number, PAR0362. But the serial numbers were off, starting with 51746517. The pens were seized by the FDA earlier this month, and right now, no one knows exactly what was in them. That is the part that should scare everyone.

Image courtesy of Novo Nordisk

Because if fake GLP-1 meds can make it through official wholesale channels, how far has this gone already? How many patients might have injected something that wasn’t what they thought it was?

This isn't paranoia. It is precedent. And we’ve seen it before.

In December of 2023, we covered the FDA’s alert about a different batch of counterfeit Ozempic, this one using the lot number NAR0074. At the time, the fakes were more obvious. The pen labels were wrong. The needles were not sterile. The entire box was a fraud. But those fakes were sold outside the usual channels. They were being pushed on sketchy websites and offered up through telehealth companies that popped up overnight.

This time, it got further. This time, it got in.

And that’s what makes this so serious. People already feel like the health care system is failing them. People are already exhausted by the cost, the paperwork, the games. But at the very least, they trusted the medication they were given. If that trust breaks, if people start questioning every box they pick up, it could unravel everything.

This is not just about GLP-1 meds. It is about confidence in the system that delivers every medication, from insulin to antibiotics to cancer drugs. If counterfeiters can spoof packaging, copy serial numbers, and inject their product into the bloodstream of the supply chain, that should set off alarms everywhere.

Novo Nordisk is asking patients to double-check their pens. If you have a 1 milligram pen with the lot number PAR0362 and a serial number beginning with 51746517, call your provider. Do not inject it. Report it to the FDA through their MedWatch program. Take this seriously.

We’ve been tracking this issue from the beginning, and we’re not letting it go. At On The Pen, we’ve always believed that the people taking these medications deserve transparency, safety, and truth. No one should have to worry about whether the medicine they are holding is real.

This crisis shows just how vulnerable the system really is. But it also shows why patient advocacy matters. We have to be loud. We have to be early. And we have to keep going, because nobody else is going to fight for us.

Stay tuned to OnThePen.com for more updates and in-depth analysis on the latest developments in weight loss and diabetes treatments. Sharing this article is a powerful form of advocacy that brings us closer to our goal of educating the masses and reducing the stigma of obesity. If you found this article insightful, please share it within your networks, especially in Facebook groups and Reddit forums dedicated to GLP-1 medications and diabetes management. Together, we can make a difference.